Individuality

I went and saw the last Harry Potter movie, and was really proud of the way they portrayed the romance between Harry and Ginny. The most interaction they have in the whole movie is when they kiss and Ginny says, "I know," and they run separate directions in the middle of the battle. It's become incredibly apparent to me that maintaining a firm sense of individuality in a relationship is paramount. I have a high sense of respect for those characters because their focus is not on simply living for one another. As Stephen King said, "Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend."

7/21/11

Extras

I am constantly thinking of all of the things I need to take care of before going back to school, but I never feel like I have time to do any of them. It wasn't until I was laying in a tent miles from town that I finally felt like I had time to accomplish things. It’s not until all the extras of life are taken away that you feel like you have time to relax and accomplish things at a leisurely pace.

7/20/11

Thought Of You

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

I am learning that when you walk away from a problem, you don't magically wake up one day and find it fixed and everything changed. Conflict lays stagnant where you left it because time does not heal wounds. It just makes you forget they exist.

7/18/11

What will you die without?

Normally when I pack to go on vacation I start to worry I’ve forgotten something crucial, and develop the sudden urge to grab all the extra odds and ends I can find. I then ask myself this question: what will you die without? It’s in that moment that my muscles relax and my heart rate slows because as the scenarios run through my head I realize that if I forget my tooth brush, I’ll have bad breath till I buy a new one, if I forget extra clothes I at least have the ones on my back , I can buy food, I can go indoors if I’m too cold. As long as I have my wallet with my ID and money, my debit card and a cell phone (which even that I would survive without) I’m going to make it. Even with nothing there are people and buildings everywhere! Someone will help me. But today was a different story. As I packed my backpack with what I needed for a one night stay in the Alaska wilderness I began to wonder if I was forgetting anything; I asked myself the question: what will I die without? Suddenly this question became much more serious. I had to make sure I had warm enough clothing, the right shoes, enough food to eat, good enough shelter and sleeping bag, and the right survival supplies, because if I didn’t pack them, no amount of cash in my wallet would count for anything. Living in the city, or at least within civilization where people and climate control have got your back makes life so much safer and tamer. Your focus in life is so much different. But in the wild, even when you’re sweating and hiking up a mountain, there’s an amount of detox and relaxation taking place. Life is no longer about pleasure and hobbies—or whatever fills our actions and time. It’s about feeling the temperature and predicting the weather. It’s about taking every decision seriously, never being lazy not worrying about what looks good, working hard and never taking the easy way out. It’s freeing, it’s simpler, and much more meaningful. There are no distractions from what’s important—your existence is focused around what’s important: survival and living on the earth as it was meant to be.

7/17/11

Photograph by Kellen Stock

Pavlof's Dog

Our parents condition us to be a certain way and it’s less that we take after their bad habits, but more that we develop survival techniques to them that can be very dysfunctional and unhealthy and that a lot of the time is the problem. Our personality defects often stem from poor or dysfunctional survival techniques we’ve developed in response to our parents. Do I sound like a self help book yet? But I think it's true. I and many of my friends are at the point where we're becoming our own people and the faults I observe in my friends are rarely those of their parents, because they see what they hate in their parents and work to be different, but their response to the faults of their parents that become their own problems to overcome and the problems their children will work to change in themselves. It's a small scale example of generational leadership.

7/16/11

Following The Leader

Driving down the road at night, the lanes before me were empty. The light turned red and I stopped and looked at the beams from the streetlamps glistening down. I sang along to the radio, I slumped onto my steering wheel and I checked my phone. All in good time. Me and one other loner lazily accelerated as the light turned green, no hurry in the solitude. I glanced at my rear view mirror and my eyes widened in shock: headlights behind me as far as I could see. Suddenly all eyes were on me and I was setting the pace. It got me to thinking. Sometimes you think you're blazing a trail alone: that you're taking the path less traveled. Sometimes you don’t realize that you're leading the way for hundreds of others. That as you step forward into the unknown to do things never done before you are paving the way for many who have been waiting for someone to follow-- who needed someone to take the first step. When you feel alone in the path you're making for yourself, realize that your individuality gives others the courage to be an individual as well. Some people don’t know what they can do till someone else does it first. Some people are, many people are, capable but need someone to go the way first and to find confirmation in that bravery. Don’t be afraid to step out in faith alone. You’re not really alone because many will follow. Bravery alone only seems that way at first. Many are following.

7/14/11

'Whoa'

“Never say ‘whoa’ in a horse race” –Jim Dahl

I was reading about this man in an obituary in the newspaper, and about how his life was full of adventure and accomplishment. They said that he lived his life by that phrase, "Never say 'whoa in a horse race," and I struggled with fully grasping what that means. I think to me the horse race is life and the decisions we make therein. At this point, opportunities are laid out in front of me and I can take any path I want, say yes to any option, gamble on any uncertainty, and the only thing that is going to hold me back is fear. Fear is what constantly causes me to hesitate, start thinking of all the possibilities, and put the breaks on the adventures and opportunities in life. I don't know if all of life is a horse race, but my life right now is, and I think I'm going to take Jim's advice and stop saying 'whoa' in the face of all the adventure, success, and happenstances that take courage to take hold of. Instead I need to take a leap of faith, grasp the reigns tight, and ride it out in full force till the end. No use short changing myself in the midst of one of the most future molding times of my life.

7/13/11